Blog For Arizona

Florida Federal District Court Gets it Dead Wrong

The FL District Court ruled against 10,000 FL voters disenfranchised by a failure to to both check a box and sign an affirmation that they are US citizens eligible to vote. This ruling is wrong on it face. Sec. 1971(a)(2)(B) of the Voting Rights Act was raised in the complaint and briefed by both the parties. You will not find the word "1971" in Judge King's 19 page opinion dismissing the complaint.

The section provides that:

No person acting under color of law shall -
deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election;

Since there is no actual question whether these people have attested to their eligibility to vote, and only made an error or omission of the type this section covers, there is little doubt this case will be reversed on appeal. The attorneys for the plaintiffs have already indicate their intent to appeal this obviously erroneous ruling.

posted by Michael Bryan @ 10/31/2004 02:12:00 AM